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Pat Croce Motivations

by Mary Stella on June 3, 2013

I’m at a business-related conference. It’s been an action-packed, intensive day that started with a breakfast meeting and a high-energy, motivational speech by Pat Croce. Pat started his career physical therapy, specializing in sports medicine when that was a concentration in its infancy. He worked his way up through the ranks of the NBA organization the Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers. (Go, Sixers!) He eventually became a part-owner and, I think, served as its General Manager. He knows what it was like to take the team from one of the league’s worst to champ status.

In a horrible motorcycle accident, he nearly lost a foot but underwent multiple surgeries and made a full recovery. His has an intense interest in pirates and pirate history. Over the years he’s amassed an incredible collection of pirate artifacts. Several years ago, he opened a pirate museum in Key West, Florida which he moved to St. Augustine a few years ago. That still bums me out. I loved that museum.

Anyway, this man has enough spirit and energy for half a dozen people. He is a big believer in pursuing your dreams with the complete conviction that you can make them a reality. His talk was a super way to begin this day. My brain is buzzing from ideas and info triggered by the sessions and roundtables that I attended today. I’m heading for bed because tomorrow is going to be just as busy.

I wanted to share some of the things Pat said that were my takeaways from the talk.

It’s only impossible until it works.

It’s our choice.

Persistence has no time limit.

I.Q. is not as important as I will.

Unleash the will of the soul. (That’s from a poem but I cannot for the life of me remember the poet or poem name tonight. I’m going to ask one of Pat’s colleagues tomorrow.)

Finally, from Emerson, a great reminder:

You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know when it will be too late.

I don’t usually go up and ask people if I can take a picture, but since my family and I are fans of Philly sports teams, I wanted this shot to send to my brother and nephews. I think we look good together. 🙂